Inside Cofidis's team car: How Roberto Damiani managed the Tour day at Solaison

Plateau de Solaison – 20.07.2026: Inside the team car, the Tour de France is not a quiet act of observation, but a race of numbers, radio messages and split-second decisions. Franceinfo was allowed to accompany Cofidis sports director Roberto Damiani during the 15th stage, which ran 183.9 kilometres from Champagnole to the Plateau de Solaison on 19.07.2026. While the riders battled for positions and energy reserves in the Alps, Damiani coordinated his team’s operations from the car.

The stage was ideally suited to this perspective. The route featured nearly 4,000 metres of climbing, including the Col de la Croisette and the final 11.3-kilometre ascent to the Plateau de Solaison. The climb, averaging 9.1 percent, was part of the Tour de France for the first time. For a sports director, a day like this means reading every crosswind situation, placing food supplies in time, assessing gaps to the breakaway group and providing riders with clear, concise information over the radio.

The car does not simply follow the race; it plays a role in its organisation. Between motorcycles, neutral vehicles and the cars of other teams, the sports director must observe the order of the convoy. When a Cofidis rider drops back to the car to collect bottles or food, a small logistical chain begins: equipment is handed over, the return to the peloton is calculated and the next key race moment must not be missed.

For Cofidis, the demanding mountain stage was also about remaining visible and able to act within the peloton. Damiani, who has worked as a sports director in international cycling for decades, represents the experience of those men who are rarely seen on the road but help shape the day’s plan. They must assess the condition of their riders without being able to look into their legs themselves. Radio communication, time gaps and observation thus become substitutes for direct feeling.

At the front, Remco Evenepoel won the stage at Plateau de Solaison ahead of Tadej Pogacar and Isaac del Toro. The Belgian rider for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe moved up to second place in the general classification, while Pogacar retained the Yellow Jersey. The race day was overshadowed by the crash and subsequent withdrawal of Dane Jonas Vingegaard, until then one of Pogacar’s main rivals in the overall standings.

It is precisely this juxtaposition of sporting brutality and controlled communication that makes the view inside Damiani’s car so revealing. At the front, riders sprint for seconds; at the back, people calculate, reassure and correct. For spectators, the Tour is a stream of colour and noise. In Cofidis’s command car, it is above all a moving chessboard, where every bottle, every bend and every radio call can carry weight.